The geosciences have a long-standing tradition in China. In accord with the (obvious) orientation towards military geography and the resulting early forms of cartography and toponymy (study of place-names) of the Spring and Autumn period, the central areas of today's China had been surveyed to a great extent. An extensive postal system and traffic network, which was at least equal to that of the Roman Empire, further facilitated the transfer of distance parameters and topographic features to official documentation. Pre-Christian literary sources such as the Shujing (Book of Histo…